1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a male contraceptive device comprising a condom and a wearing aid that is easily applied.
2. Related Background Art
A so-called condom of a male contraceptive device has a teat integrally formed with a closed end of a tip of the condom, and usually has a ring integrally formed with the open end of a back end. With the ring of this open end as a base, the outer peripheral part of the condom is rolled up toward the closed end so as to be turned inside to form a rolled-up part (as can be seen in FIG. 9), and then, it is packaged, respectively, and commercialized. At the application time, the closed end of the tip, which becomes the inside of the condom, is brought into contact with a tip of penis, and is applied on the penis while unrolling this rolled-up part.
However, since there is a trend that the thinner condom is the more preferred, the rolled-up part based on this ring ends up having a thickness (diameter) of only approximately 3 to 4 mm, which is very small compared to the size of a human finger, and results in the problem that the application is difficult at the application time.
Therefore, various devices have been proposed for eliminating this inconvenience.
For example, a ring to be used at the application time is proposed, in which guide rods having protrusions for preventing falling-off are assembled inside the rubber ring comprising irregularities for identifying the face side of the condom in a form to provide a space in the center for inserting the penis, and the bottom face sheet provided with an insertion port in the center is attached to the bottom of the rubber ring, and the condom is sandwiched up and down by the guide rods and the bottom face sheet. However, though this is relatively simple in the structure, if the rubber ring is prone to excessively deform, there will arise problems, for example, the bottom face sheet may be torn and broken; or such a tool has to be purposely provided for use at the application time; or the ring is easily contaminated by jelly coated on the condom and is difficult to keep clean (for example, see patent document 1).
Further, though disclosures are made for an application tool provided with a base to support the condom in an U-shaped cylinder and a groove to fix the condom as well as an annular condom applicator for holding the condom so as to make the application easy and the like, there are such defects that, after the condom is set once on the application device and the applicator, it is applied on the penis, and yet, it must be removed after the application; or it must be clean by itself as the time as it is contaminated with a coated jelly; or the condom must be purposely applied on the applicator or the like at the application time for use; or the applicator must be ready for use at all the time (for example, see patent document 2, patent document 3 and patent document 4).
Furthermore, a disclosure is made that, to make the application of the condom easy, when the rolled-up part is to be formed by rolling up the condom based on the ring of the open end, in case it is rolled up with at least a piece of tape shaped material or a pair of tape shaped material attached, this tape shaped material may be pulled to the root of the penis at the application time, and therefore the rolled-up part is unrolled to make the application easy.
However, according to this method, though there is an advantage of not using the applicator and other aids purposely, and tape material having smaller width and thickness is preferred, there occur several problems, for example, the difficulty in pulling the tape at the application due to the smaller width and thickness, the difficulty in rolling-up for forming a rolled-up part, or the difficulty in grasping the tape due to sticking thereof to jelly when the jelly is coated on the condom. On the other hand, when the width and/or the thickness of the tape is increased, for example only a part of the rolled-up part becomes bulky and looks bad. Further, although there is the advantage of easy pulling at the application when the both are increased, there occurs the problem that the shape of the rolled-up part is not circular but flat, which looks extremely bad, and in addition, the condom becomes difficult to be applied (for example, see patent document 5, patent document 6, patent document 7, and patent document 8).
Further, a condom formed by a soft film such as a poly vinyl chloride film is proposed. Here, since it is difficult to integrally form a condom with a poly vinyl chloride film, two sheets of the film are seamed by heat-sealing to form a side part of the condom having a shape that is slightly loose compared to the penis in erection. However, as some burrs are produced at the heat-sealed part, the condom must be formed so that the burrs face the penis side. In addition, since this condom is easily fallen off due to the size that is a little loose, to prevent the falling-off, a circular ring of an expandable silicon rubber of 5 mm in diameter that is a little smaller than the open periphery of the film condom is used at the neighbor hood of the root of the penis. However, as the condom is made by seaming two sheets of film by heat-sealing, pin holes are easily formed at the seam part, so that there may be a problem in the effect for contraception. Moreover, as burrs are formed at the seam part, the formed condom must be turned inside out to put the burrs to the inside of the condom. Also, some wrinkles may be formed even though the film is flexible, and the tips of some wrinkles may be hard enough to injure the vaginal wall or to cause pain, which is not always preferable, and a damage to the penis may be caused by the burrs.
Thus, since the condom of the flexible vinyl chloride film is formed a little larger than the penis, there are various problems such as easy formation of the wrinkle across the whole part of the condom and the difficulty in preventing the formation of the pin holes and the like, and such a condom is not practical (for example, see patent document 9).
Further, the present applicant has previously proposed, in the male contraceptive device comprising a condom and a wearing aid, an almost circular ring shaped product in the profile as a wearing aid in which the inner periphery of the ring shaped product is approximately equal to the size of the outer periphery of the condom and, moreover, provided with constrictions at one or more places from the outer periphery toward the inner periphery and/or from the inner periphery toward the outer periphery; or a wearing aid comprising a ring shaped product, of which profile is circular and, moreover, provided with constrictions at one or more places of the ring shaped product; or further, a wearing aid formed in a ring-shape by coil-shaped member. Although the condoms with these wearing aids are easy to produce and have a good advantage of easy application, there arises a problem that since these wearing aids are used as a core part when rolled up from the open end toward the closed end of the condom, the shape of cuts and compressions formed in the wearing aid and the coil-shaped member appears as the shape of the rolled-up part of the condom, and, for example, in the case of the coil-shaped member, the coil appears as a bellows-like rolled-up part, and the shape of the cuts and the compressions also appears in the rolled-up part as it is, and therefore, it looks bad, and in case of applying it on the penis, it feels like gritty, and the application is not always good (for example, see patent document 10, patent document 11 and patent document 12).
[Patent Document 1] Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 10-165433
[Patent Document 2] Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 7-308336
[Patent Document 3] Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 6-14952
[Patent Document 4] Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 6-154260
[Patent Document 5] Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 8-56978
[Patent Document 6] Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 8-252277
[Patent Document 7] Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 6-197921
[Patent Document 8] Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 9-24059
[Patent Document 9] Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 9-47466
[Patent Document 10] Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2002-264874
[Patent Document 11] Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2002-306657
[Patent Document 12] Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2002-306658
As described above, since condoms are small compared to the size of the human hand, and thus conventional condoms are difficult to apply on the penis, various attempts to apply the condoms more easily have been made. However, further improvements of condoms are needed that a feeling of application is good, their production is easy, there is no sense of incompatibility between the product appearance and the application atmosphere, application of a condom on the penis is smooth and easy, the wearing aid can be easily removed after application of the condom and the like.